A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by any one of the patent disclosure as it appears in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to keyboards such as used for typewriting and computer data entry and the like, and more particularly to a system for configuring a keyboard so that it is more easily learned and used by typists and users.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the advent of the typewriter, keyboards having keys corresponding to particular letters have been widely used for many years. Such keyboards are well established in the art.
Initially, typewriters often jammed because the keyboard used for the typewriters enabled the typist to go faster than the typewriter could type. This would cause the typewriter arms with the upraised letters to jam, causing the typewriting process to stop and forcing the typist to stop and clear the jam before proceeding.
This problem with initial keyboards or key sequences for typewriters was resolved by the implementation of the standard QWERTY keyboard. The QWERTY keyboard gets its name from the first six letters on the upper left hand side of the keyboard. The QWERTY keyboard was designed to actually slow the typist down so that the keys would not become jammed. Certain other accommodations or alignments may have taken place so that, for example, the two most frequently used keys would not cause each other to jam when typed in quick succession.
An alternative to the QWERTY keyboard is the DVORAK keyboard. The DVORAK keyboard is also well established and known in the art and was basically designed to provide a more ergonomic keyboard, placing the keys most used adjacent those fingers which are more able to use them. As people often use the letters E and T, these letters may be disposed adjacent the fingers that are more apt or able to use them.
Both of these keyboards suffer from the drawback that they are difficult to learn. They are difficult to learn conceptually because the keys are not disposed in any well-known organized sequence. They are also difficult to learn because the keys that are most used are not located in any regular location that easily conforms to a person""s digital/finger anatomy or the mind""s concept of the regular structure a keyboard often provides.
Many people may be hesitant to use a computer, typewriter, or other device due to the keyboard involved. Not knowing where the needed keys are leads to doubt that the proper key will be quickly found and fear that it will be a time-consuming process. Consequently, there may be some, if not many, individuals who consider a keyboard to be an imposition that is difficult to overcome due to its daunting nature and the fact that keyboard entry can be a slow and tedious process.
It would be an addition to the art to provide a means by which keyboards could be provided that are easy to use for beginners, but also allow established or experienced users to type quickly. The Keyboard Configuration System set forth herein satisfies both these criteria.
Some segment of the world""s population has to perpetually learn or relearn the locations of keyboard letters. The existing QWERTY and the two-hand DVORAK keyboard layouts are well-known examples of keyboards used for typewriters, computers, and the like. These keyboard designs or structures may exclude that untutored population segment from knowledge-based society due to their design and complexity. Simplified layouts developed by the Keyboard Configuration System set forth herein serve as a means for inclusion of that population segment and make easier the learning and assimilation of such keyboards. The size of that population segment and the consequent future popularity of simplified keyboard layouts should not be underestimated. Furthermore, experienced typists can benefit from the System, as frequently used keys are readily available to the typist""s fingertips.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of means by which keyboards can be configured, and now present in the prior art, the present invention provides a new keyboard configuration system wherein it can be used to efficiently and methodically provide a keyboard that is easier to use for both beginners and those who are familiar with the keyboard.
The general purpose of the present invention, as described below in greater detail, is to provide a keyboard configuration system by which alphabets of almost any, if not all, phonetic written languages can be applied to a keyboard structure in an efficient, predictable, and easy-to-learn manner. The Keyboard Configuration System set forth herein results in not only a new method by which keyboards can be achieved, but also new keyboards which are not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, taught, or even implied by any of the prior art keyboards or keyboard construction systems, either alone or taken in any reasonable combination thereof.
The Keyboard Configuration System set forth herein initially ranks the letters of the pertinent alphabet, for example the English alphabet, in the order in which the letter is most frequently used in the language. This is a ranking that is generally different from that of the alphabetical rank. For example, in the English language, the letters E and T are the most often used, while the letters A and B are the first letters in alphabetical sequence.
Once the frequency ranking is established, certain rules arc imposed as far as the keyboard is concerned. Generally, there are a limited number of rows for the keyboard, the number of rows generally being three. Additionally, there may be a limit to the length of a row, approximately ten. Additionally, a third rule can he applied in that the resulting key row sets are aligned at either their left side or their right side (left and right justification, respectively). Within these general operating parameters, the Keyboard Configuration System sets forth different rows comprising different frequency levels of the letters of the pertinent alphabet.
For a three row keyboard, a high frequency row, middle frequency row, and low frequency row are established to span and present the entire alphabet and are generally referred to herein as key row sets or key sets. The length of each of these rows may be different and may be shifted with respect to one another.
Prior to the association of individual frequency-ranked letters to keys on a keyboard, each of the selected row sets are placed in alphabetical order such that the high frequency, middle frequency, and low frequency key sets are all in alphabetical order from either left to right or right to left. The resulting alphabetized and frequency-biased key row sets are then applied to the keyboard in question.
Due to the variable number of keys in each row and the ability to shift key rows within the left or right limits of the longest key row, a variety of different keyboard configurations arise as candidates for a best or preferred keyboard or keyboards. For example, in the English language, 96 keyboard candidates arise for evaluation.
In order to evaluate such keyboard candidates, a demerit system is used. A demerit is assessed to the keyboard if there is backward travel from the alphabetical direction (left to right or right to left) going from the beginning of the alphabet to the end of the alphabet. Backward travel is considered to be backward when it either departs from such left to right or right to left travel. This generally means that, for example, if the alphabetical direction is left to right, in going from a letter to its next alphabetically-adjacent letter, the backward travel is in the right to left direction. A demerit is assessed for each column the next letter is physically away from the current letter. For example, in going from J to K, if the K key is three columns to the left of the J key and the alphabetical direction of travel is left to right, three demerits would be assessed to the keyboard.
Demerits are also assessed for excess forward travel. In the example above, one demerit only would be assessed for the K key if the K key were two columns to the right away from the J key. Alphabetical travel in the same column, or the next adjacent column in the alphabetical direction, is not assessed any demerits. In this way, forward travel is acknowledged, but excess forward travel is subject to a demerit for each column of excess forward travel experienced.
Once all of the keyboard candidates have been assessed for demerits, those with the fewest demerits are considered to be the best or preferred modes as they have been both frequency biased by the row selection and are more alphabetical in order than any of the other keyboards due to their minimal demerit tally.
The Keyboard Configuration System of the present invention results in keyboards that are easily used and understood, making them advantageous for both the experienced and novice user. While the English language has been used here as an example, any phonetically based language which has an alphabet (and apparently all such languages do) is susceptible to the Keyboard Configuration System set forth herein. Written language that is not based on phonetic alphabets, such as Asian languages, may be susceptible to the present System with minor changes, so long as there is a frequency-based discrimination that can be made as well as a standard linear progression for rearranging the frequency-biased rows. Other alphabets may also be susceptible to the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for obtaining keyboards that are efficient and useful.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system to determine such keyboards that are reliable and predictable.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide keyboards that are more useful as they are biased on both a frequency and alphabetical basis.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from a review of the following specification and accompanying drawings. The foregoing objects are some of but a few of the goals attained by the present invention.